Paris ice cream baron Berthillon dies at 90

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PARIS (Reuters) - The founder of the Paris ice cream brand beloved of the city’s international tourists, Raymond Berthillon, has died at the age of 90, according to a newspaper death notice.

A visit to the Ile Saint Louis in the heart of Paris and a stone’s throw from Notre Dame is on many a tourist itinerary, partly for the architecture, the gift shopping, and the chance to take pictures of the cathedral, but also because it is the home of Berthillon ice cream.

Along the picturesque island’s narrow 17th century streets, queues stretch all day and well into the night at the family-run company’s handful of outlets, surrounded by the Seine river.

The son of a baker, Berthillon took over his mother-in-law’s cafe hotel La Bourgogne on the island at the age of 30. La Bourgogne remains the centre-piece of the Berthillon ice cream empire to this day.

Berthillon’s death on Saturday was announced in Monday’s Le Figaro newspaper.

The business, which celebrated its 60th birthday this year, carried a photograph of its founder in black and white at the top of its web site on Monday, titled simply ‘Raymond Berthillon, 1923-2014’.